Master Class: Liquid Light

Posted on November 11, 2007 - Filed Under News, Photo | Leave a Comment | 64 views

WaterDance was published in 1995, and shortly thereafter Schatz and his wife and savvy manager, Beverly Ornstein, relocated from Marin to Manhattan. That move also marked the end of Schatz’s medical career after several years of photographic sabbaticals. The couple kept the house, though, so that Schatz could keep shooting in its pool. He went back four or five times a year to continue his own projects and also to do the growing number of paying assignments that his underwater work was attracting. Over the years these have included editorial work for Vogue, GQ, Sports Illustrated, O magazine, and Time (for which he has shot many covers); fashion work for Carolina Herrera, Giorgio Armani, and Joseph Abboud; and advertising work for companies ranging from McDonald’s to Brizo, maker of high-end bath and kitchen fixtures. For a sense of how prolific the photographer is, visit howardschatz.com.

In 2001, Schatz and Ornstein bought a house in Connecticut — giving the photographer the opportunity to design his own swimming pool from the bottom up. “There’s probably no other pool like it in the world,” he says. “I can light from any direction, any side, from the top or bottom, with as much complexity and control as in a regular photo studio.” Though the new pool is outdoors, it’s covered with an inflatable clear dome that allows him to shoot year-round. It also lets him incorporate outside light into his images. “Mostly I use strobe because I like to control things,” says Schatz, who works with a variety of light types and silks up to 20 feet square. “But I sometimes slow the shutter speed enough to bring in natural light as fill, and I sometimes shoot by direct sun because of the shadows it creates and the way ripples in the water break it up.” Either way, Schatz’s spectacular lighting skills also depend on light-modifying devices such as reflectors placed under the water.

Schatz’s control extends to the pool water itself. He heats it to an unusually high 92 degrees — exactly the temperature of skin — so that he and his subjects can shoot all day without the risk of hypothermia. (That’s especially important for his subjects, whether dancers or models, because they usually have so little insulating body fat.) He chemically removes the pool’s chlorine on the day of a shoot so that his models won’t squint. “In a lot of underwater photographs, if you look closely you can see their eyes burning,” he says. Schatz even keeps the pool’s pH — its acid-alkaline balance — at 7.4, the same as human blood and tears. “You get into the pool and say, Ah, this is paradise,” he says. “My models can open their eyes and be beautiful.” That’s clear to see in the latest of his many books, H2O (Bulfinch, $60), a stunning monograph of his underwater work.

One other bit of chemistry is crucial to the success of his images, Schatz explains. “I make the shoot happy,” he says. “I refrain from using the word ‘No.’ I’m encouraging and complimentary. I always try to find something positive, so that the experience, even though it’s really hard work for the subject, is satisfying.” Schatz feels that this atmosphere lets him push beyond simply getting the shot. “There are times that the models do such a good job that I might say, I feel like I got the picture, we probably can quit, but since we’re both having such a good time why don’t we take some chances, not constrain anything and see where we can take it.”

Despite Schatz’s tight control over his set and subjects, he still believes accident plays an important part in his photography, most of which has actually been done on dry land. “I feel as if I can always make a good picture,” he says. “But to make something incredible is really hard, and unlikely, and evanescent. To do that you need to allow a feeling of freedom within your direction, so that the model isn’t afraid to improvise. You need a willingness to take chances, and to be a little crazy.”

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